Abstract: The evaluation index system of high-quality development of China’s municipal economy is constructed from the six dimensions namely green ecology, social culture, enterprise development, economic efficiency, open innovation and people’s livelihood sharing; that figure of China’s 286 prefecture-level cities is measured by the evaluation model of variation coefficient-principal component analysis. The research tells 1) China’s eastern region enjoys a higher speed than the central, the west and the north-east; 2) “Belt and Road Initiative” has well served as an engine for a coordinated development in China’s western region; 3) around the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze River Delta are clustered many cities with intense radiation, and has taken shape an economic layout bearing distinctive features and complementary advantages; 4) green development has been the block on the way of high-quality development for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Integration Plan. Social culture and enterprise development are adopted in the evaluation index system, an innovation of this study. With that, the results have a strong reference value for the relevant cities to identify their strengths and weaknesses of high-quality development for better decision-making.

Key words: city economy, high-quality development, evaluation index system, evaluation model